The universe also has an aroma of hot metal and motorbike welding, NASA experts said.

The space agency has commissioned Steven Pearce of British fragrance firm Omega Ingredients to recreate the smells to help train spacemen.

He said: "When astronauts were de-suiting and taking off helmets, they all reported quite particular odours.

"We have already produced the smell of fried steak, but hot metal is more difficult."

David Bryant

Freshly-fallen stone meteorites (in my opinion) smell like gunpowder! You know: the smell in the air after Guy Fawke's Night/July 4th. Several of the Apollo astronauts I've met have said that their suits/gloves/the LM smelt like gunpowder after an EVA.

Without a strong sample size of folks who have undergone a space walk, they've found it rather tough to pinpoint the smell, with some former astronauts having called the odor akin to "seared steak," "hot metal," "welding fumes" or even "gunpowder." Now, NASA has enlisted the help of London chemist Steve Pearce — pro bono, mind you — to recreate the smell, hoping it will help in training exercises.

...mixing anecdotal discoveries together — Pearce says that seared steak and hot metal actually fall in line with each other and "lead us to conclude that the sensation is caused by some high-energy vibrations in particles brought back inside which mix with the air" — with the recent discovery of ethyl formate in space's dust particles (that's the same matter that gives raspberries their flavor), and there's a strong starting point for recreating the possibly sulfurous-like smell of space.

moorouge

Just been watching Clayton Anderson on BBC Breakfast. He said that space has a unique smell — rather like burnt oxygen.

Have any other astronauts reported or commented on this?

Editor's note: Threads merged.

Ronpur

I have heard them say it smells sort of like over heating electronics or like ozone. Also welding fumes! I suppose that is the same thing but just hard to describe.

It is what they smell on the spacesuits when they get back in the airlock, obviously not sniffing space itself!

moorouge

Clayton Anderson did mention welding also so, perhaps, that's what it smells like, that is once one eliminates those given off by sweaty bodies!!

spaceman

I've asked a couple of astronauts in the past and gunpowder was the reply.

Philip

Well there's a lot of alcohol in the ISM - Inter Stellar Medium

onesmallstep

Chris Hadfield was asked this question during his NY stop for his book tour and he also said gunpowder/chordite.

Spacefest

I would say space, being a vacuum, smells YOU!

JBoe

I was watching NASA TV the other day and Alexander Gerst was demonstrating opening the ATV-5's hatch. When he opened the station's hatch it exposed the metal probe of ATV-5 and he said that it had a strong smell, like walnuts.

SpaceAholic

Given the possibility that marine microbial life is inhabiting the exterior perhaps the scent of sea spray can also be detected.

The moon has a distinctive smell. Ask any Apollo moonwalker about the odiferous nature of the lunar dirt and you'll get the same answer.

With NASA's six Apollo lunar landing missions between 1969 and the end of 1972, a total of 12 astronauts kicked up the powdery dirt of the moon, becoming an elite group later to be tagged as the "dusty dozen."

Philip

It should smell like alcohol as interstellar space contains some alcohol!

moorouge

It's a popular misconception that alcohol smells. Alcohol itself is odourless. What smells are the other ingredients of alcoholic beverages.

Neil DC

Pure ethanol has a very mild but distinct aroma, easier to perceive in spirits like vodka. Most alcoholic beverages are very aromatic from other chemical compounds, which usually mask this subtle aroma.

moorouge

From California Lawyer Centre Blog -

Ethanol has a "mild" odor when the concentration is high, as in a liquor or wine that has not been consumed. When ethanol on the breath of a human is observed, the ethanol is of insufficient concentration to be detected, so what is detected is not the ethanol, but the other compounds on the breath. These were either present in the drink when consumed, or were manufactured by the human body as part of the process of metabolizing the drink and meal.

From the DWI/DUI Facts & Fiction website as quoted by David J. Hanson Ph.D. -

Alcohol is actually odorless.... it has no smell. What people perceive as alcohol on the breath is actually the odor of things commonly found in alcoholic beverages. The breath of a person who drinks a non-alcoholic beer will smell the same as that of a person who has consumed an alcoholic beer.

Seems we both might be correct, but only for a given definition of smell.

Neil DC

Ethanol as first mentioned as being in the ISM is a more specific term than "alcohol" What we generally regard as alcohol, apart from other flavor chemicals is largely aqueous ethanol, then in decreasing order isoamyl alcohol, 2-methylbutanol, isobutanol, propanol, phenylethyl alcohol, etc. Concentration of components does indeed play a role in the their perception.

As a PhD organic chemist who works with people with acute sensory skills (flavorists and perfumers), I agree with the lawyers opening sentence, but disagree with the sociologist Hanson that "alcohol is odorless". Ultimately both should get their facts from chemists and biochemists who work with the neat and diluted chemical.

To get back on topic I remember reading a cosmonaut once said that after a Progress had docked and they opened the hatches he smelled a burnt metallic aroma.

music_space

I seriously believe that space smells nothing, even in LEO. It's interaction of earth materials with solar and cosmic rays, later exposed to spacecraft atmosphere, that must generate chemicals which one can smell. Fascinating enough, though...